In addition to Craig's examples of deed information, they can also be used to confirm the existence or non existence of a person at the date of the instrument (not the recording date). Another use, which is onerous, is to unscramble families whose offspring all to seem to have the first names. If you find John Smith living in X parish and another John Smith in Y parish at the same time, you know you are probably dealing with two different individuals. You can go further and try to establish the precise locations. Caveat - that can be time consuming. Finally. Deeds as a generally recognized principle of law, are high in the veracity chain, rating above matter written in wills. Deeds often contain what is known as the "being" clause, as in "being the same property which was owned by A and willed to his son, B, etc." This is accepted as totally binding in most courts.

Ed, good point in that last paragraph about "totally binding in most courts." For the benefit of the other list members, Ed White is a retired Commonwealth of Virginia Assistant Attorney and now lives in Kinsale, Westmoreland County, where he dabbles in (among other hobbies) land research and its attendant genealogy. Craig On Aug 13, 2011, at 10:00 AM, Edward White wrote: > In addition to Craig's examples of deed information, they can also be used > to confirm the existence or non existence of a person at the date of the > instrument (not the recording date). > > Another use, which is onerous, is to unscramble families whose offspring all > to seem to have the first names. If you find John Smith living in X parish > and another John Smith in Y parish at the same time, you know you are > probably dealing with two different individuals. You can go further and try > to establish the precise locations. Caveat - that can be time consuming. > > Finally. Deeds as a generally recognized principle of law, are high in the > veracity chain, rating above matter written in wills. Deeds often contain > what is known as the "being" clause, as in "being the same property which > was owned by A and willed to his son, B, etc." This is accepted as totally > binding in most courts. > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >